Dr Ulrich Schmiedel (MLitt, DiplTheol, DPhil, FHEA)
Lecturer in Theology, Politics and Ethics

- School of Divinity
Contact details
- Tel: +44(0)1316508918
- Email: ulrich.schmiedel@ed.ac.uk
- Web: Academia.edu
Address
- Street
-
New College
Mound Place - City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH1 2LX
Background
Ulrich Schmiedel is Lecturer in Theology, Politics and Ethics at the University of Edinburgh. The Deputy Director of Edinburgh’s Centre for Theology and Public Issues, he has written widely on political and public theology. He also serves as Chair of the Academic Advisory Board of A World of Neighbours, a multi-faith network of actors working with migrants across Europe.
Ulrich is the author of Elasticized Ecclesiology: The Concept of Community after Ernst Troeltsch (2017) and the co-author of The Claim to Christianity: Responding to the Far Right (2020), written with Hannah Strømmen. His publications also include the co-edited compilations Dynamics of Difference: Christianity and Alterity (2015), Religious Experience Revisited: Expressing the Inexpressible? (2016), Religion in the European Refugee Crisis (2018), and Liberale Theologie heute – Liberal Theology Today (2019).
Prior to his appointment at Edinburgh, Ulrich was Lecturer in Systematic Theology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Munich, Germany. He completed his doctorate in theology at the University of Oxford, after studying theology, sociology and hermeneutics at the Universities of Glasgow and Stirling as well as the Universities of Leipzig and Halle-Wittenberg.
Qualifications
MLitt (Glasgow), DiplTheol (Leipzig), DPhil (Oxford)
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
Member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy of Scotland
Responsibilities & affiliations
- Editor-in-chief of "Political and Public Theologies: Comparisons - Coalitions - Critiques" with Brill
- Exchange Coordinator, School of Divinity
- Honours Dissertation Coordinator, School of Divinity
Undergraduate teaching
- Religion, Violence and Peacebuilding
- The God(s) of the Philosophers: Problems and Proposals
- Metaphysics and Morality
- Public Theologies: Thinkers and Themes
- Political Theologies: Thinkers and Themes
Postgraduate teaching
- Public Theologies: Current Controversies
- Political Theologies: Current Controversies
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Areas of interest for supervision
Ulrich welcomes enquiries from students who would like to pursue postgraduate studies in any area relating to his research.
Current PhD students supervised
- Ryszard Bobrowicz
- Whitney Buchanan
- Stephan Dolan
- Anna Elisa Koch
- Baily McDaniel
Research summary
Ulrich specialises in political and public theology. Methodologically, his research combines systematic theology with both sociology of religion and philosophy of religion. His research interests include:
- comparative theology and coalitional theory
- ecclesiology
- faith-based activism
- history of theology, particularly the 19th and the 20th century
- Islam in Christian theology
- liberal theologies
- migration and post-migration in theology, politics and ethics
- religion in the far right
- theories of religion
Current research interests
Most of Ulrich’s recent research has been concerned with the significance of Christianity for migrant and post-migrant societies, particularly in Europe. He was awarded a membership at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, NJ, USA, where he participated in the interdisciplinary inquiry on religion and migration. Currently, he is completing a study of the conceptualizations of religion in political theologies in the UK and the US during the so-called 9/11 decade. Concentrating on the interpretations of Islam in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, this study makes a case for a comparative and coalitional political theology that can resist the instrumentalization of religion for the contagious concept of the clash of civilizations.Knowledge exchange
Ulrich has been a public speaker at a variety of events. He often visits community and church groups for workshops. He has also contributed to a number of media outlets, both online and offline.
Affiliated research centres
Current project grants
‘Liberalism’s Islams and Islam’s Liberalisms: Constructing a Contrast in a Paradigmatic Period’, American Academy of Religion, International Collaborative Research Grant (2018-2019)
-
Public Theologian avant la lettre? N.F.S. Grundtvig as Historian and Politician
In:
Grundtvig-Studier: An International Journal for the Study of Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872), vol. 70, pp. 122-129
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Review article (Published) -
The Claim to Christianity: Responding to the Far Right
(192 pages)
Research output: › Book (Published) -
Migration
(8 pages)
Research output: › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary (Published) -
Supremacy smugglers? Islam in the legacy of theological liberalism
In:
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Accepted/In press) -
Coalitional church: Ecclesiology in the age of migration
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
[Review of] Religious Imaginations: How Narratives of Faith Are Shaping Today’s World. Edited by James Walters. London: Gingko Library, 2018. 301 pp. $44.95
(3 pages)
In:
Journal of Church and State, vol. 62, pp. 158-160
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jcs/csz094
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book/Film/Article review (E-pub ahead of print) -
[Review of] Theologising Brexit: A Liberationist and Postcolonial Critique, Anthony G. Reddie, Routledge, 2019 (ISBN 978-0-367-028888-6), x + 264pp., hb £115
(4 pages)
In:
Reviews in Religion and Theology, vol. 26, pp. 693-696
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/rirt.13693
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book/Film/Article review (Published) -
Kirche im Kreuzfeuer: Potenziale liberaler Theologie in postmigrantischen Gesellschaften
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
Coalition - creation - church: In pursuit of a political ecclesiology
(25 pages)
In:
Studia Theologica, vol. 73, pp. 154-178
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0039338X.2019.1667431
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Ernst Troeltsch: Die Soziallehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen (1912)
Research output: › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary (Published) -
Karel Dobbelaere: Secularization. An Analysis at Three Levels (2002)
Research output: › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary (Published) -
'Take Up Your Cross': Public theology between populism and pluralism in the post-migrant context
In:
International Journal of Public Theology , vol. 13, pp. 140-162
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/15697320-12341569
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article (Published) -
Liberale Theologie heute - Liberal Theology Today
(409 pages)
Research output: › Book (Published) -
Hijacked or hooked? Religion in populist politics in Germany
Research output: › Chapter (Published) -
[Review] Marcia Pally, Commonwealth and Covenant: Economics, Politics, and Theologies of Relationality
In:
Theologische Literaturzeitung, vol. 143, pp. 404-405
Research output: Contribution to Journal › Book/Film/Article review (Published) -
Religion in the European Refugee Crisis
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67961-7
Research output: › Book (Published) -
Introduction: Charting a Crisis
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67961-7_1
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
"We Can Do This!" Tackling the Political Theology of Populism
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67961-7_11
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
Conclusion: The Theological Takeover
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67961-7_16
Research output: › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
[Translation] Mohammed Khallouk, Confronting the Refugee Crisis: The Importance of Islamic Citizens' Initiatives
Research output: › Chapter (Published)